St. Francis Seraphicus on Charles Bridge / Sv. František Serafínský na Karlove moste (Prague)
N 50° 05.197 E 014° 24.586
33U E 457776 N 5548428
Depicted statue of St. Francis Seraphicus (Sv. František Serafínský) is one of 31 historic statues (...or groups) decorating famous Gothic Charles Bridge (Karluv most) in Prague' centre.
Waymark Code: WMNG7K
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 03/10/2015
Views: 57
Depicted statue of St. Francis Seraphicus (Sv. František Serafínský) is one of 31 historic statues (...or groups) decorating famous Gothic Charles Bridge (Karluv most) in Prague' centre.
What makes Charles Bridge a top tourist attraction is the open air sculptural gallery which adorns it. It was created much later than the actual bridge construction, mostly in 1706-1714 in the expectation of the canonisation of John of Nepomuk (Jan Nepomucký). Despite the partial changes the gallery has undergone since its creation, it is still a great reflection of the history of the Czech lands - there are 31 statues and groups of statues in all on the bridge today with approximately 100 figures, among them also prime works of the great men of central European sculpture Matthias B. Braun and Ferdinand M. Brokoff. Since 1965 the precious originals of the statues have been gradually replaced by replicas. In extent and quality this bridge gallery has no equal in Europe.
Sculpural group with statue of St. Francis Seraphicus is the 9th one on the left looking from the Old Town Bridge Tower. The sandstone sculptural group, work of Emanuel Max (1855), was donated by František Antonín Count Kolowrat Libštejnský. He ordered the work to commemorate the failed assassination of Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1853. The sculptural group represents three separately standing figures made in the academic Classicism style of the 19th century. In the middle, there is St. Francis in his friar vestment standing between two angels – seraphs. The Latin inscription on the pedestal below St. Francis says Donated by František A. Kolowrat Libštejnský, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, in 1855 in memory of St. Francis Seraphicus for the miraculous salvation of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1853. Below the angel on the right, there is the inscription For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways in Czech. The same inscription in German is below the angel on the left.
St. Francis of Assisi (or also St. Francis Seraphicus; Italian: San Francesco d'Assisi; born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, but nicknamed Francesco ("the Frenchman") by his father; 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226)was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis for men and women not able to live the lives of itinerant preachers, followed by the early members of the Order of Friars Minor, or the monastic lives of the Poor Clares. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. [wiki]